Surgical superglue stops bleeding in baby's brain

Unusual treatment may have saved Olathe infant

Published 7:00 PM HST Jun 08, 2013

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -

Doctors at the University of Kansas Hospital have saved an infant with a rare, life-threatening condition by using surgical superglue.

The Kansas City Star reports 3-week-old Ashlyn Julian, of Olathe, was brought in Wednesday with an aneurysm that caused bleeding in her brain. Such bleeding is so unusual in infants that no special, tiny surgical tools are available to treat it.

Dr. Koji Ebersole was wary of opening Ashlyn's skull to operate, so he tried a different approach. He navigated a tiny catheter through her brain, then deposited a bit of sterile, surgical superglue on the blood vessel. The glue dried in seconds and sealed the leaking vessel.

Doctors said they knew of no other cases of an infant brain aneurysm being repaired with the glue.

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